BEN’S KONA PROCESS 134 SUPREME

MONTH 12: A mechanic gets medieval on the Kona’s rear as running costs continue to mount

£9,999 / 29in / konaworld.com

This month has proved an expensive one. After sourcing a set of £45 replacement bearings for the Process 134 from Kona, I dropped the bike and bearings off at Ace Bicycles in Monmouth to let the professionals get busy with a hammer and drift.

According to Martin, the mechanic at Ace, most of the rusty old bearings came out fairly easily, but the two main pivot bearings were pretty well seized in the frame and took some extra encouragement to free them. In fact, watching someone go at it with a hammer and drift on ‘your’ precious frame is quite alarming and not for the faint-hearted.

Once out, it was pretty clear that their condition was appalling, with next to no rotational movement in many of the cartridge bearings. Thankfully, the replacements all went in easily and the back end now has a lovely smoothness to the suspension action. And because the performance of the bearings had degraded slowly over time, the subsequent creep in suspension performance wasn’t that noticeable until I replaced the non-functioning bearings.

Looking more closely at the frame design, it’s easy to see how water gets into the unprotected bearings – the large main pivot bearings are particularly exposed.

On a bike at this price I’d expect better sealing and durability, and given that the bearings were ready to be replaced at Christmas, that could mean a new set of bearings every nine months.

And if the £144 that it cost to have the bearings fitted

(plus the £45 I spent on the bearings) wasn’t enough of a hit to my wallet, the batteries in both of the Tyrewiz pressure gauges ran out too, so I had to find replacements for those. OK, these only added another fiver to the bill, but being an unusual CR1632 size, it took me a while to find them on my local high street.

Still, the suspension is now back to its very best and with signs of spring appearing here’s hoping that my remaining month on the Process

134 is out enjoying the trails, not watching it taking another beating in the workstand.

WHY IT’S HERE It’s Kona’s Supreme build, but will it turn out to be Ben’s dream build?

Water ingress has turned Ben’s bearings brown

THE RIDER BEN SMITH Position Art editor Mostly rides Forest of Dean Height 5ft 9in Weight 76kg THE BIKE ■ Limited-edition ‘dream-build’ fullcarbon trail bike with 134mm rear travel and 29in wheels ■ 140mm-travel Rockshox Pike Ultimate fork paired with Super Deluxe Ultimate shock ■ SRAM XX1 AXS electronic shifting and Reverb AXS electronic dropper post eliminate cables for clean looks ■ Zipp 3Moto carbon wheels boost traction and comfort, and come with wireless pressure sensors